In a significant breakthrough, US researchers claim to have used, for the first time ever, blood vessel from the abdomen to treat a blocked artery in the brain.

The case, details of which are published in the December issue of Surgical Laparoscopy, Endoscopy and Percutaneous, involved a 49-year-old man with a history of hypertension and heart disease and a blocked artery in the brain.

Surgeons usually use a blood vessel from the leg to avoid this blockage and restore blood flow, but the procedure involves two invasive surgeries -- one to remove the blood vessel in the leg and the other to graft it into the brain.

Dr Constantine T Frantzides, professor of surgery and director of the minimally invasive surgery programme at Rush-Presbyterian-St Luke's Medical Centre in Chicago, and his colleague Dr R Lawrence Ferguson, a neurosurgeon at Rush and the Chicago Institute for Neuroresearch and Neurosurgery, used a laparoscopic method to remove a blood vessel from the omentum, an apron-like area in the lower abdomen comprised of fatty and other tissues and blood vessels that protects the abdomen.

With laparoscopy, surgeons use small holes to access areas of the body that would normally require large incisions.

The surgeons then grafted the omentum into the cerebellum, which is in front of the artery that was blocked.

According to Dr Frantzides, because of the distance between the lower abdomen and the brain, the surgeons made portals that allowed them to create a tunnel for the omental graft. The surgeons then used the portals to pull the omentum through the tunnel until it reached the brain.

"Because we had to stretch the omentum from the abdomen to the brain, we had to map the entire path so the main vessel could maintain its blood supply as it unfolded and reached the brain," he said, adding that the portals were placed along the path of the grafted blood vessels so they could access the vein and pull it along until it reached the brain.

The patient, who had suffered right-sided weakness, slurred speech and loss of balance, fully recovered after the operation and showed no signs of these symptoms thereafter.

SOURCE: Asian News International

With warm regards and best compliments !

SajanE-mail : sspinya@yahoo.com"Anti-nepotism as well as anti-baisness are mandatory to be a vaild socio- organisation or charity"

The case, details of which are published in the December issue of Surgical Laparoscopy, Endoscopy and Percutaneous, involved a 49-year-old man with a history of hypertension and heart disease and a blocked artery in the brain.

According to Dr Frantzides, because of the distance between the lower abdomen and the brain, the surgeons made portals that allowed them to create a tunnel for the omental graft. The surgeons then used the portals to pull the omentum through the tunnel until it reached the brain.

"Because we had to stretch the omentum from the abdomen to the brain, we had to map the entire path so the main vessel could maintain its blood supply as it unfolded and reached the brain," he said, adding that the portals were placed along the path of the grafted blood vessels so they could access the vein and pull it along until it reached the brain.

The patient, who had suffered right-sided weakness, slurred speech and loss of balance, fully recovered after the operation and showed no signs of these symptoms thereafter.

SOURCE: Asian News International

I am presently undergoing an elective in vascualr surgery in the UK, under Prof. Shearman, which is infact a very talented person. So I think it is quite appropriate for me to put the following questions forward:

1. Please mention/quote the year of the issue. That'd of much help.

2. Another point, please elaborate whether the vascualr graft was cut or stretched up to brain from lower abdomen, as I think it is really a very long way and in my opinion, is near to impossible by stretching!

Nice to read your reply. Sajan has perhaps posted the scientific report published somewhere. If you are so interested you can go to the same source and raise query there and let us know here in the forum too. BTW, these days I am working on the E-models of the abdominal cavity. All those aorta and veins are so complicative for me.

vascualr surgery is quite interesting here, i just wanted to know abt the surgery...i think its the graft, but the link provided for the journal is not sufficient to track it down!

ani yes, sunil sir, i am fine here n doing gr8!i completed in GU medicine and am in vascular surgery rt now...i', getting to observe, assist n do so much more here! its fun but at the same time, tasking too!